


Group Confrontation

by viviegirl05



Series: Wooing Barry [5]
Category: The Flash
Genre: Barry's friends pick on Len and Mick, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-14
Updated: 2017-04-14
Packaged: 2018-10-18 15:38:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10619940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/viviegirl05/pseuds/viviegirl05
Summary: Team Flash finds out about Barry's new living situation. Predictably, they don't take it very well.





	

Once Barry changed his address with the post office and at the precinct, it was inevitable that Joe would find out- and by extension Cisco, Caitlin, and Iris. Predictably, they did not take the news well. They ambushed him after work one day when he went to STAR Labs for Flash work. When Barry arrived at the labs he was in good spirits, fresh form dinner with Len and Mick- fruits of the sea. You know, like, thirty pounds of it.

“Barry,” Cisco started.

“What’s going on here?” Barry asked cautiously, taking in the assembly of people- Joe, Iris, Caitlin, and Cisco, all standing together. Honestly, they looked like they were about to host an intervention, which was ludicrous. Why on earth would they be hosting an intervention?

“Barry, we’re worried about you,” Iris said earnestly. Wait. _Was_ this an intervention?

“Worried? About me?”

“Bear, what are you doing? Living with those killers? This ain’t like you- you’re smarter than this.” Joe said.

“This is about Len and Mick?”

“Len and Mick? Is that what you call them now?” Cisco said accusingly.

“Barry, they’re your _enemies_. They’re _bad guys_. They kidnapped me AND Cisco!” Caitlin cried.

“Cold tortured my brother to find out your name,” Cisco said. “Did you forget that Barry?”

“What about Ferris Air? Did you forget that too?” Joe chimed in.

“No,” Barry sighed, “I haven’t forgotten. But Dante’s fine now- Len made sure to get him to the hospital right away, there wasn’t any permanent damage, and he can play the piano as well as ever now! And the whole Ferris Air thing…look, in a weird way, I’m actually kinda glad Len let the metas go.”

“What?” Iris exclaimed.

“Are you crazy?” Caitlin shouted.

“Barry, he unleashed four very dangerous people on the city, how can you be glad about that?” Joe entreated.

“He BETRAYED us, Barry!” Cisco cried.

“Ok, technically, he didn’t betray us.”

“WHAT?” Cisco and Joe yelled.

“He promised to help us safely transport the metas to Ferris Air and to protect me from them if things went bad- which he did!”

“Yeah, by _killing Deathbolt!_ ” Cisco shrieked.

“What kind of nonsense has that man been telling you?!” Joe demanded.

“Len hasn’t been telling me anything Joe, I came to this realization on my own. Len kept his promise, I just should have been more specific.”

“Are you kidding, Barry? Please tell me this is a joke,” Caitlin pleaded.

“Look, what we were doing, it was wrong. It was the best we could come up with, but it was still a horrible thing to do. We were supposed to be rehabilitating the metas, not just keeping them locked up indefinitely without trial in tiny little cells you can’t even lay down in. Yeah, we were busy, but it was still a terrible thing to do to someone. Some countries consider solitary confinement like that a form of torture- did you guys know that?”

“What were we supposed to do? Iron Heights wasn’t capable of holding them!” Cisco pointed said.

“Were we just supposed to let them go? They could have killed people Barry.” Caitlin said beseechingly.

“Of course we couldn’t just let them go, but moving them to Lian Yu, away from the United States judicial system and still without trial was worse than what we had been doing before.”

“You know I was never a fan of that plan to begin with,” Joe crossed his arms. “But that doesn’t mean Snart double crossing us and letting them go was right.”

“No, the metas all deserved- deserve- to be in jail, but if we had actually sent them to Lian Yu the guilt would have eaten us alive.”

“Barry does have a point,” Iris conceded.

“And Len has kept them all in line- Mardon and Bivolo haven’t hurt anyone or caused much property damage since they got out. Peek-a-Boo hasn’t even broken the law- she left Central City. She’s been working as a waitress and staying with a friend in Coast City.”

“How do you know that?” Caitlin asked.

“Because Len kept an eye on her when she left Central. He’s been keeping an eye on all of them. He knew they were dangerous when he released them, and he’s been keeping tabs on them to make sure they don’t cause too much trouble. He even sent the police a couple of anonymous tips whenever Mardon or Bivolo were planning something potentially dangerous to civilians.”

“Are you serious?” Cisco asked. “Are you telling me that Captain Cold actually has a moral compass?”

“A broken compass,” Joe muttered.

“Look, Len isn’t a bad guy. He’s made some bad choices, yes, but he did the best he could with the hand he was dealt.”

Silence reigned in the cortex for several seconds.

“What about the security guard Cold killed at the museum?” Joe challenged.

“I actually looked into that,” Iris interjected. “The guard, Clive Anderson, was abusing his wife. No charges were ever filed, but the police were called on multiple occasions, and her medical records showed numerous trips to the emergency room. Seven and a half months after Clive was killed, his wife gave birth to baby boy. In a strange way, Cold was actually helping.”

“See? And Len knew that- he wouldn’t have fired at him if he hadn’t known the guy was bad news.”

“Hardly makes him a saint, Bear.” Joe grumbled.

“Well what about Rory then?” Cisco queried.

“Yeah, he strapped me to a bomb once!” Caitlin stated.

“He wasn’t trying to hurt you- Micks really old fashioned when it comes to killing. Women and children are of limits- no exceptions. He just wanted to make sure you didn’t go anywhere.”

“He could have rigged a fake bomb then, made me believe it was a bomb without any real danger.” Caitlin countered.

“Look, he didn’t expect anyone but him, Len, or me to find you, in which case you would have been completely safe regardless of the realness of the bomb. And he still set a long enough delay that Joe was able to knock Cisco out of the way and pull you to safety. And it was a small enough charge that you were safe only a few feet away. You wouldn’t have gotten anything worse than some burns if Joe hadn’t been able to get to you in time.”

“That’s no excuse Barry!” Joe yelled.

“I’m not trying to excuse it!” Barry yelled back, “I’m just trying to make you see that there’s more to them than their criminal actions!”

“Barry,” Iris said after a few seconds of the loudest silence Barry had every experienced. “Do you love them?”

“What? No! Of course not, we’re not even dating.” Barry scoffed.

“Seriously?” Cisco raised his eyebrows. “You’re living with them but you’re not dating? What the hell is your relationship then?”

“Its…um…” What _was_ their relationship?

“Well?” Joe prompted.

“You know what,” Barry said in lieu of answering, “I don’t owe you guys an explanation. It’s my life, I’ll do with it what I want. I’ll see you later, I’m taking the rest of the night off.”

With that Barry flashed himself home, to the sympathetic ears of his amazing roommates who were so much better than Barry’s friends believed them to be.


End file.
